BOU AVENUERed RidgeZosia Zgolak and I hiked up Red Ridge in the
Spray Lakes area of Alberta's Kananaskis Country on 13 August 2017.
The hike is described in Gillean Daffern's Kananaskis Country Trail
Guide. Although Zosia had already hiked Red Ridge in snowy
conditions back in 2011, she was more than willing to repeat the ascent
with me. Starting from Spray Lakes day use area, we crossed to the
east side of Smith-Dorrien Highway and found the signed access for the
High Rockies Trail. Shortly after, we reached a T-intersection with
the main High Rockies Trail near a bridge. The access trail for Red
Ridge starts between the T-intersection and the bridge, but we missed it
initially when we inadvertently followed another trail closer to the
north bank of the creek (I built a cairn on the way out). We soon
found the proper trail and proceeded up the valley for about another 800
metres before ascending a large rubble slope to gain the crest of the
ridge. From there, we followed the ridge eastward, going over
numerous false summits on our way to the high point. Fortunately,
the majority of the ascent was mostly easy hiking with a few sections of
scrambling to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, our timing
could not have been any worse as we reached the high point just as the
weather turned nasty with some cold, blowing rain. We promptly
scuttled our plans to descend to nearby Sparrowhawk Tarns, and after
snapping a few quick photos, we beat a hasty retreat back the way we
came. The rain eventually stopped halfway through our descent which
made it a little easier for us to pick our way down some of the tedious
rubble slopes which otherwise become dangerously slick when wet.
Hoping to avoid the large rubble slope that we initially climbed up, we
took to the forest and stumbled across a fairly decent game trail which
led us more or less back down to the original approach trail (the
flagging for the game trail along the approach trail is very easy to
miss). The rest of the hike out was quick and painless.

Red Ridge can be seen beyond the trees
from the Spray Lakes day use area.

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak

Sonny adjusts his pack on the High
Rockies Trail. The trail to Red Ridge begins at the yellowish
rock (upper left).

Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak

Zosia climbs up a big rubble slope
with Spray Lakes Reservoir in the background.